Robbed hit of the week 1/2/24 - Queens Of The Stone Age's "No One Knows"...

 

 

"No One Knows" - Queens Of The Stone Age

from the album Songs For The Deaf (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #51

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the Queens Of The Stone Age, a band started by guitarist/singer/songwriter Josh Homme.  Homme's first group, Kyuss, was an underground favorite of college-age stoners who wanted their grunge a little more gutteral and speedier. From the late 1980s to 1995, the group released four albums and had one minor chart hit in the United Kingdom with "Demon Cleaner" which peaked at #78 in 1994. Originally called "Gamma Ray" and a side-project for Homme, the band eventually coalesced with former Kyuss bandmate Alfredo Hernandez with help from producer Chris Goss (who supplied their new non-liable name) for the self-titled first album under the Queens of the Stone Age name on the indie Loosegrooves Records in 1998, with former Kyuss bass player Nick Oliveri joining the lineup right before its release. While it didn't have the success of a Pearl Jam or a Stone Temple Pilots, it garnered critical praise, especially from Britain, who had given Kyuss their biggest returns. 

With that momentum, the group was signed to Interscope, though Hernandez parted to go his separate way. Homme and Oliveri carried on with a troupe of journeymen from other acts to record their sophomore effort, Rated R, which came out in 2000. The record granted the Queens with their first radio hit, "The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret", which climbed to #21 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart and #36 on their Alternative Rock counterpart. Meanwhile in the UK the song scored a top-40 hit at #31. One of Homme's friends that participated in the recording of the album, Mark Lanegan of the band Screaming Trees, would become a part of the band proper.

Homme also recruited a ringer for the next Queens album Songs For The Deaf in the form of Nirvana/Foo Fighters powerhouse Dave Grohl, who was already riding high with his band, which almost scored another top-40 pop hit in the end of 2002 with "All My Life". The lead single from the set was "No One Knows", an almost Brit-pop-like stomp of a track. Written by Homme and Lanegan, and produced by the former with Eric Valentine, the lyrics emit a vague reference to drugs, while the production, which is a ear-stomping crunch, carries it farther than the words belie. When he sings "And I realize that you're mine, what a fool am I" is Josh talking about a woman, or a pill, or maybe both? Anyway you find it, the result is a crowd jumper that stood out from the normal dirges on rock radio. The music video, partly directed by Michael Gondry, finds Homme and the boys getting their tables turned by some roadkill...

While "No One Knows" conquered rock radio, topping Billboard's Alternative Rock chart for a month and peaking at #5 on the Mainstream Rock list, the song stalled right under the halfway mark on the all-inclusive Hot 100 in March of 2003. Internationally, the single landed the Queens their highest-charting hit in the UK at #15, while also reaching the top-40 in Ireland (#26), Italy (#27), and the Netherlands (#39). The Songs For The Deaf album, released in August of 2002, hit #17 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending one week shy of a year on the list and selling over a half-million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2003, the song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance, ironically losing to Grohl's own Foo Fighters for "All My Life".

The Queens' next single from the record was "Go With The Flow", which Homme wrote with Oliveri. The track reached the top ten on the Alternative Rock chart at #7, hit #24 on the Mainstream counterpart, but only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #116. Overseas, they landed their first top-40 hit in Australia at #39, and their third in Britain at #21. A year later, it was also nominated for Grammy in that same category, which this time went home with Evanescence for "Bring Me To Life".  A third release, the drug-infused "First It Giveth", didn't get much notice in the States but again reached the British top-40 at #33.

 

The band toured successfully after the record, but not without drama, with Oliveri being sacked over accusations of domestic abuse, and Grohl leaving to go back to the Foos. Homme, again reeling in more hired hands like Joey Castillo from Danzig and Troy Van Leeuwen from A Perfect Circle, recorded the fourth Queens album Lullabies To Paralyze, which was their first to make the top ten on the Billboard 200 at #5. The first single from the record, "Little Sister", written by the new trio (Lanegan by that time only had a part in the album, concentrating on his own band), spent two weeks at #2 on the Alternative Rock chart, and #13 on the Mainstream Rock list, and placed their second hit on the Hot 100 at #88. It also again reached the British top-40 at #18. Again they found themselves nominated for the Hard Rock Performance Grammy Awards, which System Of A Down won for "B.Y.O.B.". 

After a live album release, Homme's Queens returned in 2007 with Era Vulgaris. The lead single, "Sick, Sick, Sick". was a modest success at rock radio, stopping at #23 on the Alternative chart and #40 on the Mainstream list, but it was nominated again for the Hard Rock Performance Grammy, losing again to the Foo Fighters for "The Pretender". Meanwhile, another cut from the record, "3's & 7's", became their sixth and most recent top-40 hit in the UK at #19. 

It would be a long six years, during which Homme worked on other projects like Eagles of Death Metal and Those Crooked Vultures, along with battling health complications. With Those Crooked Vultures, Homme reached the Alternative Rock top ten with "New Fang" (#10), which won a Grammy (his only one) for Best Hard Rock Performance. When he came back with new bassist Michael Shuman, keybardist Dean Fertita, and Dave Grohl stepping in again when Joey Castillo left partways in, the revived Queens scored a #1 album with Like Clockwork in 2013. The single "My God Is The Sun", which made both the Alternative (#17) and Mainstream (#37) Rock charts, was nominated for the Best Rock Performance Grammy (Hard Rock had been folded in), which Imagine Dragons took for "Radioactive". The album was also up for Best Rock Album, which went to "ringer" Led Zeppelin's live reunion album Celebration Day. 

After another three year break, Homme returned bringing in drummer Jon Theodore for Villains in 2017, which came in at #3 on the Billboard 200. From the set "The Way You Used To Do" returned the band to the top ten on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart (at #11 on the Alternative list). Like Like Clockwork, it was up for the Best Rock Album Grammy, which went home with The War On Drugs for A Deeper Understanding. 

The Queens' most recent studio album, In Times New Roman, arrived in June of 2023, and went to #9 on the Billboard 200. The lead single from the set, "Emotion Sickness", went to #31 on the Alternative Rock airplay chart, and is nominated for a Grammy in 2024 for Best Rock Song. The follow-up, "Paper Machete", did even better, climbing to #21. The album's also up for the Best Rock Album Grammy as well.

(8/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Homme rolled out the single on The Tonight Show in 2002...

 

 

The Queens (with Grohl) played Glastonbury that same year...

And lastly, back to Glastonbury this past year...